The word “impossible,” Mr. Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day, is only found in the dictionary of fools.

Holy shit! It’s time for The Black Hole to make an appearance in the Behind the Scenes Pic column! And it’s about damn time, too.

The Black Hole is a fairly amazing movie, especially when looked at today. In Disney’s rush to cash in on Star Wars’ monster success they seemed unwittingly to make the most fucked up sci-fi adventure/horror story ever made for family viewing.

What makes The Black Hole so fascinating is that mixture of adult and childish that sometimes pops up as wholly one… like that ending, which gave a whole generation of kids nightmares. Then you have BOB, which is a little amalgam of both, because it’s totally cheesy, totally manipulative, but a goofy robot voiced by Slim Pickens? How awesome is that? I mean, c’mon!

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The cast is massive, including Anthony Perkins, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Forster, Yvette Mimieux, Roddy McDowall(‘s voice) and the great Maximilian Schell as one of the best brooding baddies in the history of family films.

Today’s pic doesn’t showcase the amazing cast, but it does showcase the amazing model work that went into the movie.

Hope you guys enjoy the pic, which you can click for the bigger image!

but it's a brilliant mess. It tries to pull off so much contrasting goals: It tries tries to be dramatic, but has silly, childish robots like Old Bob and V.I.Ncent.
While attempting to appeal to children we soon have Maximilian fricasseeing Anthony Perkins'. Sure it was bloodless, but it was acted in such a fashion that it was obvious that he was inconsiderable pain.
And there's the John Barry soundtrack, which is masterful; and not to forget the Cygnus itself, which is arguably the most intricately beautiful model of a spacecraft to appear in film, and certainly the first to make an appearance in the Museum of Modern Art.
Then there's that ending, which is probably one of the most beautiful and WTF endings that I have ever seen for a science-fiction film.
Sure, The Black Hole was by no means perfect, and while Star Wars was a much better film when taken in its entirety, I don't own it on DVD because I don't feel that it has anything else to tell me.
The Black Hole, by contrast, I watch every few years and never fail to be tripped out by that remarkable ending, the beautiful design of the Cygnus, or the great theme music.

There were only two "hero" Cygnus models built. One of them was destroyed (on purpose!) for the film's climactic sequence. The other was accidentally busted-up in a forklift accident on the studio backlot, some years later. -_-
The Palomino "hero" model DID survive. It was displayed over the exit ramp for The Great Movie Ride at the Disney/M-G-M Studios Park in Orlando, for many years. I dunno if it's still there, though.

Saw it with my Dad back in the day, and even then as a 16 year old I was disappointed...
dis·ap·point·ed/ˌdisəˈpointid/Adjective
1. (of a person) Sad or displeased because someone or something has failed to fulfill one's hopes or expectations.
2. (of hopes or expectations) Prevented from being realized.
Why? Well the press was pretty good from Starlog and a few other publications, but after the intro (which was the best part of the film) the spaceships, FX, robots and even the acting was sub-par.
After Star Wars or even Silent Running well "Black Hole" was awful..
This could have been so good, but it was clearly the worst that Disney could do.
Even at 16 knowing what Douglas Trumbull or John Dykstra could do with models and optical printing this was a lazy film...
Hey I get nostalgia, I love Donner's Superman and a host of other 'dated' films, but this one did not deserve a BTSP. Mehh..

Well of course not. But I do really love it - mostly for its gothic, moody atmosphere and set design. I like Maximillian the robot also. That red fucker scared me to death as a kid. And as far as the Cygnus model goes, I have a friend at the MOMA in New York and apparently they have had that model at some point. My friend is a film archivist there and she's been trying to track it down for me for a couple months with no success so it could very well have been lost.

The opening line graphics animation sequence really grabbed me. I spent weeks trying to reproduce that kind of imagery on whatever computers I had access to at the time. The ship designs were cool for the time.
I thought the story was weak though and what was up with putting a Jiffy Pop on Yvette Mimieux's head? Back then, theaters in New Jersey had to bid on films without getting to preview them first so the theaters had this goofy movie trailer to inform the audience of this fact while apologizing for the imminent suckage.

but then again, when is? I think I recall hearing somewhere that Star Wars was based somewhat upon Kurosawa's Seven Samurai; I mention it because behind most great modern films or stories, if you look carefully enough, you are going to find a basis in something else.
Some writers/directors are able to spin things so that it looks like what they are doing is unique, but more than likely whatever it was was either inspired by someone else or copied outright.
Which I have nothing against, but to criticize The Black Hole for being based upon 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea is nonsensical.
If there is going to be criticism, it should be for the execution–which was at its best, uneven–but not for the inspiration, which was worthy of imitating.

I'm not gonna set the dogs on you or anything, but I don't understand how you can say the Cygnus, one of the coolest spaceship designs ever, is "sub-par".
The good news is we can agree to disagree.
I watched this film not too long ago, for the first time in a LOOONG time. Yeah...it doesn't hold up all that great. A good premise, sure...but it does suffer from the already mentioned tonal shifts. It could stand an update. But if anyone thinks they could improve either the Cygnus or Maximilian...they'd be wrong. In my opinion, of course.

that ending scared the SHIT out of me, but no where near as much as the fat wart faced guy in Dune which the lady at the box office told my sister was like Star Wars when Dumbo turned out to be sold out.

Best thing in the film, by far. (The scene where Robert Forster sees the robot funeral may well be my favorite piece of Barry music.) Hopefully, someone at Varese or Intrada is working on this. 'Twould make a nice tribute to the composer.

is that how that stupid movie ends? anyways Black hole, I have said it before was shown to us in middle school on film, really cool till anthony perkins was killed man what a shock back then. The ending is great the music alone makes this classic, thank god for Aint, the only ones who know who slim pickens is.end of line

I'm not gonna bash someone for their aesthitic preference. And the designs you've listed are all greats.
Isn't it cool when someone disagrees with you on this site without calling you a fucking half-wit retard poopy-headed shit-stain?

The Cygnus, on rollers and without its lights on, does look really 'nude'. The modeling detail on that piece is, in one word, INSANE. I have no idea how they machined brass framework (or whatever was used for the Cygnus) in so many fine internal layers with structural integrity and the full-length lighting effect.
I guess they did a motion control pass with the model in front of the star field, then removed the model for anther pass, and roto'd the supports out in post. Nice that the Cygnus didn't have to be washed-out with light for blue-screen separations.
If I recall correctly, THE BLACK HOLE was the first movie I went to by myself, as my parents or no one else I knew wanted to see it. I do remember it was PG and, while worried I couldn't get in, but I bussed across town myself, nonetheless. I recall not being too impressed with it and being turned off by the 'hell/heaven' ending which seemed like a total cop-out at the time.

You've had all this bubbly, happy Disney stuff and then you go see this movie for the first time and it's dark and disturbing and moody. Thank God someone at Disney greenlit this and allowed them to make it the way they did. In my experience it was the first movie I ever saw that was made for kids yet treated them like adults.
Sure, most Disney movies had a certain level of adult theme, but Bambi's mom dying didn't really hold a candle to a lobotomized cyborg disemboweling a guy at the command of a madman twisted by isolation.

...and yes, I know that the word LEGO has no pleural form. You're supposed to say "LEGO bricks" or LEGO blocks". No one told me that as a child, and I'm not changing how I say it now. So whoever tries to correct me can fuck off.

The Milleniumm Falcon and the USS Enterprise. However the Cygnus is the one that mose closely sticks to what can be considered a 'practical' starship design. But it does have the greatest starfield backdrop in cinema history and now we know why. Seriously, the scale model photography in The Black Hole has yet to be bettered. That model looked beautiful on the big screen. Yes, I'm old enough to remember seeing that on a very big screen at the ABC Cinema in Harrogate. Which they tore down to build a modern pub and a fucking MaccyD..... Stupid Harrogate Council.

A practical starfield is THE only way you could've filmed that model. Because of the way it was build with a milled and etched brass superstructure, with gaps in it that stars could be seen through it, the travelling optical matt would've been a nightmare to line up in an optical printer. A genuisly simple solution to a massive problem. Respect to the film crew on that one.

Good call, though I'm pretty sure they needed the Cygnus to (a) be illuminated FROM WITHIN and (b) appear 'dark and mysterious" for the establishing shots, hence not bathed with light to avoid blue-screen spill. There are indeed many composited shots with the Cygnus and Palomino and (both have the brass latticework). For Cygnus close ups, they seemed to use separate (larger) model sections - your comment on the 'matting hell' avoidance for those more scrutinized model close-ups is likely true.

The other advantages of the practical starfield is that it could be lit itself in a way to make it really look good and by filming it at the same time as the main beauty pass of the model (dark or illuminated) removed the need for the film to go through the optical printer when the Palomino wasn't in shot, thereby reducing film quality degradation with each pass round the printer. Properbly why it looked so good on 70mm. I think there are shots of the Palomino passing from behind the edge if the Cygnus and in front of it as well. This would mean that to avoid even more hellish matts, the Palomino, Cygnus and starfield would have to filmed in one motion controlled move at the same time. The rig Disney must've built to achieve that would an amazing piece of kit.

The space ship interiors and the models look amazing, as do some of the robot designs. Can't stand BOB though.
There's a great movie hiding underneath all the childish stuff, it's just sad that didn't work out.

I think there were a number of SF movies that appeared around the Star Wars "period" that despite not eclipsing Star Wars and also maybe being deficient in other areas as well, were pretty good movies that may had done better at other times. The Black Hole may have its problems, but, there are some awesome images and ideas in that movie and i've always enjoyed it.
I think a re-make is a good idea in this case, because with a bit more thought/ time applied i think this could be way more popular if a few of the originals little kinks are ironed out.

But I'm not inclined to do so today. And I'm at work while I'm typing this so I'm not paying attention and my f bombs may miss and cause collateral damage. Besides, theres too much nastiness around in some of these TB's. It's nice to be in a pleasant one.

six months ago from the library. It has an all-star cast - Maximillian Schell, Robert Forster, Ernest Borgnine, Anthony Perkins, Roddy McDowell, Slim Pickens. Unlike all Disney stuff up until then there is no happy ending. Maximillian (both the actor, and the robot) scared the hell out of everyone. Also it took a while, but Norman Bates finally gets his just desserts.

In some shots, BOB and VINCENT were suspended upside-down from wires attached to their undersides, then the image was flipped right-side up. This way, the viewer wouldn't see any wires holding up the robots. A genius move by the practical effects crew.
For such a dark film, I was amused that there were Black Hole free gifts in cereal boxes.

of the lovely John Barry score, the intricate model work, and Maximilian Schell hamming up his Nemo-in-space role, and the hellish dreamlike ending, there's little to recommend. I caught it on TCM a year or so ago, and it really is creaky. McDowell gives his line readings a nice twist, but everyone else (except Schell) is a wooden as plywood. The aforementioned kid friendly robots, the just-dodging the meteor..its really quite silly. Don't mean to piss on anyone's parade.

No problem. For me this film was a pivotal one and–for better or for worse–colored my views of sci-fi till this day.
If I recall I was twelve or therabouts when I saw it at a theater in Manhattan.
What sticks most in my memory is when the Palomino appears from the left side of the screen in the beginning of the film.
This made an impression on me because you don't see the ship at all for a few seconds; instead you hear Anthony Perkins and VINCENT, their voices against what is perhaps the most interesting (and obviously not scientifically accurate. Then again, I doubt anyone would want to spaceships against a sea of blackness) starfields that I have yet to see on screen.
Then the Palomino appears, seemingly out of nowhere, so suddenly that it appeared almost stealthy.
Good stuff.

When is the last time you guys watched this? When you were six?
Probably the most ill-conceived, poorly executed, mis-mash of tripe ever to jump on the Star Wars band wagon.
It would have to go up several flights to reach the "incompetent" floor.
A 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea in space knock-off that drudges on forever, with ham-fisted actors hoisted about on large, black, VERY-visible cables to simulate weightlessness; annoying, obvious R2D2 imitations; extremely cardboard special effects; and a poor man's "2001" wrap up all stirred up in a big steaming bowl of shit soup.
Seriously - there's remembering something fondly, and then there's complete self-delusion. You guys need to sit through this clown shoe movie again with adult eyes and sober up a bit. Yeesh.

The Black Hole has more personalities than "Sybil." It's just all over the place in terms of quality, logic, scientific accuracy, tone, etc., etc., etc.
Still, it has some undefinable charm. And that ending....
If the remake is handled properly, it could be seriously epic.

Sorry to disappoint, but I saw it last a few months ago.
And while it may not work for you, though your efforts to piss on everyone else's parade are a bit childish.
By the way, does anyone outside of a Scooby-Do cartoon say, 'Yeesh?'

When asked why he thought The Exorcist movie still holds up, author William Peter Blatty replied that the film deliveres - and I'm paraphrasing here- a powerful, emotional response, and whether it is posative or negative doesnt matter. You are alive during those two hours.
Now, I am not comparring the Black Hole to the Exorcist, but I feel that statement applies here. The movie is such a vast sea of ingrediants - horror, sci fi, philosphy, video games, pure science, slapstick, cliffhanger style action, religion, faith, morality...the list is pretty much endless,and heres the thing - I have never found somebody who saw it and didn't remember it. you here "oh God, the music was creepy" or "I loved the robots" or, of course "WTF is up with the ending?"
The movie works because people still talk about it, debate it and remember it, and that is ultimately what all movies want to achieve.

No class!
I don’t know which is worse:
Having Harry eating the dismembered corpse of Samuel Jackson for no apparent reason, or having him dressed as Christina Ricci.
It’s almost as bad as the Human Centipede animation.
Also, why were there no twin girls or anything in the Shining animation?

Original design for Maximillian had a bottom half that looked like a mace instead of legs. Looked pretty bad-ass, and made more sense since Maximillian hovered rather than walked. But apparently the studio preferred a more humanoid look.

I think that the pictures that you're referring to are from Starlog magazine. I think that I have a copy of it floating around my apartment somewhere.
And in reference to the corner animation from The Shining: It's oddly hypnotic watching the bicycle handlebars move about, though I got irritated when it never actually ran into the ghosts of those murdered twins.

The movie was a quick cash grab by Disney, seriously.
They obviously didn't know what kind of movie they wanted to make - just that they wanted a piece of the Star Wars frenzy. So, they took a piece from anything that came close to successful in the preceeding decade, threw it all together and ended up with a train wreck.
If this is your flavor of train wreck - cool.

Especially the way you enter from the middle and it wraps completely around and towers out of site in all directions. And then you have those enormous control panels, and multi-level catwalks, and those weird colored orbs, and the lattice work and glass above everything. Now that is a command center!

this was a quiet and pleasant TB. Snookeroo is entitled to his view, all be it a minority one in this particular TB. But I will take umbrage with one point that he and others have made. That it was a rushed cash grab post Star Wars. The movie was in development at Disney before Star Wars came out, roughly late 75/early 76 I remember reading or seeing on some production art. I admit that post Star Wars, Disney upped production on it but it had been on a slow burn because Disney couldn't figure out how to do the special FX for it. Star Wars proved it could be done. Off all the post '77 Star Wars pretenders I think, plot goofiness aside, it's one of the best ones. Other than Alien. Scott has always said that Star Wars was the kick up the arse he needed to pull his finger out and make the movies he wanted to make.

This is seriously the only current crop of remakes in development that I think is worthwhile. It has some interesting concepts in it, the whole haunted house feel to it, the fact that there are no aliens in it, just madmen, monster robots and scientifically twisted human zombies. I would only ask that Maximillian stays the same. Those spinning blades would still scare the piss out even today's jaded youngsters. Except maybe make his eyeslit glow Apple backlight keyboard blue. That'll be a nice touch.

I was a teenager and I really hated it. Especially the funny robots. I wanted something serious, something NOT Star Wars, but I didn't know what to think of this thing. I mean, a fucking cowboy robot voiced by Slim fucking Pickens?
I don't know. Maybe if I saw it today I'd be more kind to it, but I doubt it, since I'm a goddamned petulant troll.